GDG- Chamberlain brothers

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<<Even now, for people dealing with depression and other mental illnesses, heavy alcohol consumption is a form of self-medication, an attempt to numb pain, psychological and/or physical. So, in the case of the Joshua and Thomas Chamberlain, you have two brothers, so, other than birth order, you don't have radical differences for nature and/or nurture. Both saw major combat during the war. So there are still mysteries as to why they had such radically different post-war lives. >> 


I would also add that Tom had to live in his older brother's shadow which loomed large over post civil war history.   Besides the alcholism - he did suffer from respiratory ailments as did his brother John (people forget that there were 3 brothers at Gettysburg) who died shortly after the war.   Tom married John's widow.    Their brother Horace died of lung disease earlier .  This was a family with a lot of health issues.  Tom had a lot to contend with which led to his death at the age of 55. 



Paula